GIRL’S HIGHER EDUCATION
Providing young Nepali women the resources and support to pursue higher education, achieve their dreams, and uplift their communities.
PROJECT ORIGINS
Many girls are forced to drop out of school, becoming targets for human trafficking
In the remote Everest region of Nepal, seven out of ten girls drop out of school after Grade 10. While poverty is a major barrier, deeply rooted cultural norms often prioritize boys’ education, expecting girls to remain at home to manage household responsibilities. As a result, the female literacy rate in these areas is just 23%.
In many cases, families who do support their daughters through Grade 10 view it as a significant sacrifice and expect a quick return in the form of employment. However, with limited qualifications provided by just a high school education (SLC certificate), these girls often struggle to find meaningful work.
This disconnect frequently leads to tension within families and places immense pressure on the girls. Many are forced into early marriage or, in more alarming cases, become vulnerable to human trafficking, with 16-year-old girls at particularly high risk.
OUR SOLUTION & APPROACH
Raising independent women
At The Small World, we envision a world where every girl and boy has equal access and opportunity to attend school and receive an education. To realize this dream, and to end the gender gap in education in remote villages of Solukhumbhu, we built the first of its kind Girls' Dorm for higher education. This provides guardianship for girls to have a safe place as well as tuition fees, uniforms, and books.
Several Women's Leadership Programs help them to push their personal limits with a goal of future role model leadership for their community. This helps to assure both girls and women and future generations that girls also can be teachers, doctors, leaders, social workers, successful business women, or anything they can dream of for their future.
Every year, we support forty (40) girls who reside in some of the most remote villages in Solukhumbu for a higher education program in the Girls’ Dormitories. Our students are from various remote regions of Nepal where there is no opportunity for higher education and little hope for their future.
Each girl that is selected for this program has to pass an Entrance Exam to qualify for college.
It is our belief that change begins with these girls as they become role and leadership models for their communities and realize their dreams. We strongly believe the investment we together making on girls education is best investment to breakdown the poverty because better educated women tend to be healthier, participate more in the formal labor market, earn higher incomes, have fewer children, marry
at a later age, and enable better health care and education for their children, should they choose to become mothers. All these factors combined can help uplift households, communities, and nations out of poverty.
This program enables our girls to continue their education, which is important, because only a higher education can facilitate their getting a better job, earning respect, and giving back to their community.
Our Girls’ Education also offers computer education, which is an essential skill in today’s world, as well as familiarizing the girls with global society and technology.
The girls also grow their own vegetables in the kitchen garden, which is part of their education for future farming in their community and also ensures valuable knowledge of agriculture and nutritious foods for their families and communities.
At the Dorm, everyone is also taught the realities of international trafficking, that is, its operation, how someone is lured into trafficking, examples of real life stories and what really happens, and especially how to help prevent it, such as through mass media and documentaries.
Another huge benefit is that the girls will return to their villages to educate the people, and especially girls, of the realities of trafficking.
SOLUKHUMBHU GIRL’S DORMITORIES
Preparing for the life they always dreamed of but never thought was possible
It’s family style living at the Girls’ Dorm, with each of the bedrooms shared by five of the girls. They cook together, eat together, and share with and care for each other as a close knit family.
Among these girls, you will find diverse backgrounds, languages, and religious beliefs and practices, because we select girls from many different areas rather than just a couple of areas.
We really favour this dynamic mix of backgrounds for teenage girls living together. Besides receiving a formal education, which is most important, they are learning many valuable lessons about life, such as living in harmony in a community with very diverse personal, cultural, and religious perspectives. It fosters wide-ranging dialogue, working together to solve problems, finding agreeable solutions, and tolerance and understanding of other people and their ways of living.
Here the girls study together and help each other with their homework.
The amazing sisterhood these girls share together generates a lot of happy times, and they love to dance and sing together, play volleyball, and just have fun, which all help to form strong bonds of friendship and family.
ONGOING PROJECTS
Check out some of our other projects!
Arhaus Children’s Home >
A safe community for vulnerable children. Here, they can heal, grow, and receive a quality education.
Girl’s Higher Education >
Providing young Nepali women with a safe space to pursue higher education, achieve their dreams, and uplift their communities.
Phuleli Commmunity Health Center >
Bringing accessible, quality healthcare for all age groups to rural communities in Solukhumbhu, Nepal.